movies progAfghanWomen2002 2004-07-02 19:14:10 Progress of Afghan Women 2002 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ color sound opensource_movies unemployedprogr@yahoo.com 2004-06-26 20:16:43 leecherzs US Dept of State 0 5:41 Synopsis: Under the Taliban, a generation of Afghan women lived as second-class citizens hidden by burqas, forced out of school at age 8, and prohibited from working outside the home. Now, women’s rights are a priority for the new democratic government. Aid from the U.S.-led coalition is helping women acquire skills to give them financial independence, attend classes, and participate in government as elected members of the Loya Jirga. In a matter of months, the women of Afghanistan have made vast leaps toward realizing their hopes and dreams. TRT: 5:33 Channel 1 – mixed audio Channel 2 - nat sound Titles: Karmal Hadi (she has two soundbites), Teacher, Dhe Kaipak Secondary School Dr. Abdul Bashir Sakhizada, Karteh Seh Hospital Mazia Baasel, Loya Jirga delegate Script: Narrator: It doesn’t look like much, and it’s nothing you can eat or take shelter in. But the cargo on these trucks is eagerly awaited aid from America to Afghanistan. Its destination: The Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul. Its content: sewing machines and bolts of cloth. A sewing machine and the skills to use it can take a woman from poverty to self-sufficiency, from depending on assistance to making a contribution to the rebuilding of Afghan society. The sewing machine opens doors for Afghan women after years of being shut away by the Taliban. This young girl is being measured for a school uniform, the first she has ever had. Under the Taliban regime, a girl’s schooling ended when she was 8 years old. Now this child may choose to go to university. The seamstresses are learning a vocation and earning an income. Small but vital steps for Afghan women and their country after more than 20 years of war and repression. Soundbite: (in Dari) Karmal Hadi, teacher, Dhe Kaipak secondary school "During the Taliban, school was available only to a limited number of students, and only boys. Now that opportunity is open to all girls too. They have come with a lot of enthusiasm to begin their studies." Narrator: The rush to learn has swamped this school. It copes with nearly 3,000 students by teaching them in three shifts per day. School children are the only thing in abundance. Foreign aid provides the most basic school supplies. Under the Taliban, the literacy rate for women was estimated at 15%, compared to almost 50% of men. Soundbite: (in Dari) Karmal Hadi, teacher, Dhe Kaipak secondary school "Now that the schools are reopened, I see a brilliant future for our students. My hope is that if a student works hard and is given the opportunity, he or she will have a bright future." Narrator: Afghanistan lost thousands of its educated women to emigration in the past two decades. The ones who remained behind are eager to pick up where they left off. Women who had been valuable professionals in years past are acquiring new tools to regain their self-confidence--and contribute to the modernization of Afghanistan. Equally urgent to the future of Afghanistan is the recovery of its healthcare system, especially for women. The Taliban banned male physicians from examining female patients. Women were 200 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in the U.S. Infant mortality soared. Doctors long out of practice are being trained to catch up on current medical technology. The ravages of war and lack of healthcare have lowered life expectancy to less than 47 years. Soundbite: (in English) Dr. Abdul Bashir Sakhizada, Karteh Seh Hospital "Under the Taliban, we had many problems to treat patients, especially female patients and also the children, because Taliban refused to let us see female patients. Our main patients are the family and the children." Narrator: Life for Afghanistan's women has been so hard for so long that restoring the right to bake and sell bread is saving lives. This has traditionally been widows’ work, their sole means of support. There are an estimated 50,000 war widows in Afghanistan with no male relative to take care of them and their children These bakeries also fed a quarter of Kabul’s people until they too were banned by the Taliban. American and allied aid is putting needy women back in business. It is a vast leap in a matter of months from second-class citizenship to participation in the Loya Jirga, convened to decide the direction of Afghanistan. But the changes demanded by emboldened women are resisted by a traditionally male-dominated society, unaccustomed to treating women as equals. Soundbite: (in English) Mazia Baasel, delegate to Loya Jirga "I have dedicated myself to be a member of parliament, if God grants me the wish to be a member of parliament, to ring great changes in the constitution of Afghanistan, especially regarding the laws of Islam, especially the freedom of women." Narrator: President Hamid Karzai is determined to make womens’ rights a priority. When he opened the schools this spring to include girls, the day was celebrated by women and their daughters with enthusiasm and high expectations. Outward changes come slowly, and burqas still conceal most Afghan women in public. But no longer all of them because now the burqa is not the law, it is a choice. Perhaps the biggest change is the belief that a woman’s hopes and dreams can be her own. 2005-01-13 09:36:44 leecherzs 1 0 Afghanistan;women 8894 MovingImage 2002 progAfghanWomen2002